Axelrod Pushes President Obama’s Immigration Reform Speech

President Obama will be giving a major speech today concerning immigration reform. This morning, prior to his speech, Obama's senior advisor, David Axelrod, posted this letter to the Whitehouse web site providing a barebones outline to one of the major issues that will likely be addressed in the immigration reform debate. Here is Alexrod's letter:

Good morning,

In a time of unprecedented challenges, President Obama has risen to meet them in unprecedented ways. And today, the President will be addressing yet another issue our nation has faced for decades -- our broken immigration system. In a major speech at American University at 10:45 a.m. EDT, the President will make the clear case for comprehensive immigration reform.

The President believes that we must have a practical, common-sense approach that reflects our heritage and our history -- as a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws. Government must be accountable for enforcing the law, businesses that seek unfair advantages over competitors must be accountable for exploiting the system, and those who break the law must be accountable as well.

But as always, the President will put it more eloquently than I can, so tune in for the speech streamed live at WhiteHouse.gov at 10:45 a.m. EDT. If you miss it, at 1:00 p.m. EDT, you can still join Cecilia Muñoz, one of the President's closest advisors on this issue, who will be taking questions from Americans all over the country in a unique online roundtable.

The President has already signed the Recovery Act, historic reforms of our health care system, and soon the most comprehensive financial reform since the Great Depression. He has also made clear that passing comprehensive energy and climate legislation to make America the leader in the clean energy economy is an urgent need.

But the President did not come into office only to leave pressing problems for the next President. Virtually everybody in America agrees that our immigration system is broken -- it is only a matter of all political sides coming to the table and mustering the political will to solve the problem. Neither of the extreme approaches -- deportation of 11 million undocumented workers on the one hand, or amnesty for those that broke the law on the other -- is going to work. We have to work together.

Sincerely,

David Axelrod

Senior Advisor to the President

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